MONTGOMERY, Ala. — As the end of the 2025 legislative session in Alabama draws near, House Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter, R-Rainsville, predicted lawmakers will navigate the remaining legislative days “smoothly” amid a recent inter-chamber dispute.
“When it gets down to the last few days of the session, as the saying goes in the chamber, everybody’s hair gets on fire because they want their particular bill out,” Ledbetter told members of the press last week at the Alabama State House in Montgomery. “It’s important to them and rightfully so.”
That inter-chamber dispute kicked off when Sen. Andrew Jones, R-Centre, delayed a number of bills last week on the Senate floor that originated in the House. While he did not name specifics, Jones suggested that his efforts to delay House bills were due to the lower chamber not advancing an adequate number of bills originating in the Senate.
Ledbetter had previously called the suggestion “hogwash,” noting that as of last Thursday, 49 Senate bills had received final approval to the House’s 37. Nevertheless, he anticipated a smooth end to the legislative session, which he predicted could conclude as early as the week of May 8, just over two weeks away, while still acknowledging a few caveats.
“It always depends on the governor, if she wants to veto something it gives us a chance to override her veto; I don’t see anything that will come up that that could happen to,” he said.
“I think we’ll stay in contact with the governor’s office, if something happens we’ll hold a day, but right now I don’t see it being necessary. I hate to give a specific day because something could happen, but I think we’re looking at the week of May 8, but we’ll see how it goes. If we have to hold a day, it’ll be the 13th.”
Meanwhile, another bill with the potential to cause conflict in the House is pending in the Senate. Republicans’ Senate Bill 330 to reorganize the Birmingham Water Works Board will be in committee this morning. Democrats in the upper chamber filibustered, and were clotured for the first time this session, Thursday over that bill.
Asked what his legislative priorities were in the session’s final days, Ledbetter named Gov. Kay Ivey’s ‘Safe Alabama’ package of bills, and said he was hopeful the Senate would pass them quickly.
First unveiled during Ivey’s State of the State address in February, the Safe Alabama package includes several pieces of legislation designed to improve public safety and support law enforcement.
Some, like a proposal to ban Glock switches – firearm modifications that increase a weapon’s rate of fire – at the state level have already been signed into law. Others, like House Bill 188, which would establish a scholarship program for law enforcement officers and their families, have passed out of the House and still require Senate passage before being sent to Ivey’s desk for final approval.
“For me, we worked really hard on those crime bills, I think those need to get out of the Senate,” Ledbetter said. “It supports our law enforcement across this state and that’s what I’d like to see get out. Of course, the budgets are paramount, and they’re both in the position to be moved, and hopefully next week we can get those out.”